While in my second year of graduate school at Illinois State, I knew I wanted to continue teaching language. In short, I loved my time teaching with the university and putting into practice the methods and techniques I had learned through various pedagogy classes that I wanted more even experience. After reading advertisements seeking native English speakers to teach in France, I knew I had found what I was looking for.
As an undergraduate, I studied in Angers, France through the university and loved being in another culture, not to mention speaking French on a daily basis. This second time, I would find myself staying for an academic year and having a job, which required a whole new host of difficulties to frustrate, but to also expand my linguistic repertoire. Fortunately, the excellent training I had received as both an undergraduate and graduate student had prepared me to handle these complicated new situations successfully.
Currently, I teach English to elementary schoolchildren at three different schools. It is so fulfilling to be able to use the knowledge and practices I first experienced at Illinois State and apply it with students a continent away. How exciting to take students from knowing only a few scattered words in English and moving them towards full sentences. They begin the year with numbers and colors and end it describing their families, what they like to eat, and asking for information.
This would not have been possible without the support I received at Illinois State from the faculty who truly love what they teach. One day I would like to work towards a Ph.D. in foreign language teaching and help others to become the teachers they want to be and to love their work as much as I do.